TAL Education, Tencent Music, Lockheed Fall Premarket; Hasbro Rises By Investing.com

By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com — Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Monday, July 26th. Please refresh for updates.

• TAL Education (NYSE:TAL) stock fell 23%, GSX Techedu (NYSE:GOTU) stock fell 23% and New Oriental Education (NYSE:EDU) stock fell 24% after the Chinese authorities released a new directive over the weekend forcing the country’s online learning providers to operate on a not-for-profit basis.

• Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) ADR fell 3.3%, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) ADR fell 3.8% and Didi Global (NYSE:DIDI) ADR fell 11% as the Chinese stocks listed in the U.S. suffered from the extended regulatory clampdown by Beijing.

• Tencent (HK:0700) Music (NYSE:TME) stock fell 10% after China’s market regulator said over the weekend it would bar the company from exclusive music copyright agreements.

• Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock rose 0.5% amid speculation that the online retail giant is exploring venturing into digital currencies after it advertised last week a vacancy for a digital currency product lead. 

• Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) stock fell 0.4% after the weapons maker missed expectations with its second-quarter earnings, hurt by a classified aeronautics development program.

• Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) stock rose 4.7% after the toymaker beat quarterly expectations, with its film and television production business returning to growth after the pandemic hit.

• Koninklijke Philips (NYSE:PHG) ADR fell 4.8% after the Dutch health technology company booked an additional 250 million euros provision to do with the recall of breathing devices and ventilators, overshadowing otherwise strong second-quarter earnings.

• Check Point Software (NASDAQ:CHKP) stock rose 0.5% after the cybersecurity firm beat quarterly expectations, with its software sales boosted by the recent spate of ransomware attacks.

• Aon  (NYSE:AON) stock rose 6.1% and Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ:WLTW) stock fell 3.5% after the insurers confirmed that they had agreed to terminate their $30 billion merger agreement. The Department of Justice had sued to block the deal saying it would reduce competition. Aon will pay $1 billion as termination fee to Willis.